A little more on y'all redux

[Benjamin Zimmer]

On Fri, 4 Mar 2005 17:30:28 -0800, Jonathan Lighter
<wuxxmupp2000 at YAHOO.COM> wrote:

>As far as "hot-button issues" are concerned, Mencken long ago observed
>that the literature on "y'all" was "extensive and filled with
>bitterness."  When I broached the subject in Tennessee nearly thirty
>years ago, two or three academic colleagues made clear that they thought
>the notion of singular "y'all" was not just preposterous, it was an
>example of dismal Yankee and Hollywood  ignorance - with "arrogance"
>implied.

Here's a relevant snippet from a 1958 article by Ora Spaid, Louisville
Courier-Journal Religion Editor, "Does the Term 'Y'All' Have A Biblical
Basis? You All Figure It Out."  The y'all-ologists disagreed about the
term's putative Biblical origins, but they were in accordance on one
thing:

-----
Oddly enough -- and on this the scholars were agreed -- the Southerner
takes an unfair ribbing on his use of "you all." With some exceptions, the
Southerner uses "you all" with plural meaning, but his Yankee adversary
accuses him of using it in the singular.
--Reprinted in: _Chronicle Telegram_ (Elyria, Ohio), Sep. 20, 1958, p. 9
-----


--Ben Zimmer